This invention relates to sealing strips and to methods of sealing a gap using such strips. A particular application of the invention is to the sealing of gaps around body panels of a vehicle which is being sprayed to prevent overspray from entering the sealed gaps.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,128,176 and 5,260,097 describe sealing strips which can be used for sealing or masking gaps between vehicle bodies and the edges of vehicle body panels, such as doors, bonnets or boot lids. Among the sealing strips described in these patents are sealing strips that comprise a length of polymeric foam having a circular or oval cross section and a layer of pressure sensitive adhesive along at least one side surface of the length of foam that can be used to releasably adhere the sealing strip to a vehicle body or body panel in a position along and extending across a gap between adjacent body panels.
The sealing strips described in these patents are, however, difficult to affix accurately along some of such gaps and are only capable of providing an effective seal along certain of such gaps on vehicle bodies.
WO-A-90/15668 discloses a masking device and, in particular, one with a triangular form of cross-section for use in masking a B-post gap of a motor vehicle body. The device is secured to a fixed panel of the body by means of an adhesive tape attached to the base surface thereof so that the device is deformed as a door is closed thereon in order to seal the gap between the fixed panel and the door.
The present invention aims to provide sealing strips which can be used for sealing caps between vehicle bodies and the edges of vehicle body panels, such as doors, bonnets or boot lids, and which have novel shapes and constructions that make them easier to apply along certain of such gaps, and which make them able to easily provide seals across certain of such gaps that cannot easily be sealed using the sealing steps described in the prior art referred to above.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a sealing strip in the form of an elongate sealing portion formed of resiliently compressible material and an elongate attachment portion extending laterally from the sealing portion, the sealing portion having a cross-section with a convex surface along a first side thereof with an adhesive surface thereon and/or on the opposite side thereof and the attachment portion having an adhesive surface facing in substantially the same direction as said convex surface of the sealing portion.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a sealing strip in the form of an elongate sealing portion formed of resiliently compressible material and an elongate attachment portion extending laterally from the sealing portion, the sealing portion having a cross-section with a convex surface along a first side thereof and the attachment portion having an adhesive surface facing in substantially the same direction as said convex surface of the sealing portion, the attachment portion being sufficiently longitudinally bendable adjacent said sealing portion to enable the attachment portion to be bent so that a surface thereof opposite said adhesive surface lies against a surface of said sealing portion opposite said convex surface thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a sealing strip comprising an elongate sealing portion formed of resiliently compressible material and an elongate attachment portion extending in a first direction laterally from the sealing portion with an adhesive surface being provided on at least part of the attachment portion, the sealing portion having a greater thickness in a direction substantially perpendicular to the said first direction than the attachment portion and so as to provide a longitudinal hinge between the sealing portion and the attachment portion.
According to further aspects of the invention, there are provided methods of sealing a gap and masking a panel using a sealing strip as claimed herein.
Other, preferred and optional features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and from the subsidiary claims of the specification.
It should be noted that terms such as xe2x80x9cupperxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clowerxe2x80x9d used in the following description refer only to directions and the accompanying drawings and are not to be interpreted as restricting the invention to any particular orientation.